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National Theatre

All nations have a central theatre where the best actors of the country play the audience’s favourite roles. Budapest’s favourite theatre was forced to move houses quite a few times during its history.

The first National Theatre in Budapest was built on one of the parcels near Kerepesi út, and was open to the public since 1837. The theatre moved to Blaha Lujza tér in 1908, but was demolished in 1965, claiming that this was necessary because of the new Metro line # 2. After this, the National Theatre's performances were held in the Thália Theatre in Nagymező utca for two years. In 1967, they moved to the Magyar Színház on Hevesi Sándor tér for nearly 34 years.
The new National Theatre, which was designed by Mária Siklós architect, was inaugurated on the 15th of December 2001, thus the theatre finally has its own building again after nearly 40 years. It is a central architectural element of the new Millennium City district in southern downtown Pest, along with the new Palace of Arts. The bold design includes an open-air stage, encompassed by a theme park with strong references to the world of theatre and movies.